I gotta learn to write faster. I see that the original query has been amplified to better describe the question while I was (de?)composing.

On grounds that even if speed is a goal, the typing shouldn't outpace thinking, for now I'll stick to SRS's comment re cassettes, and offer that:

Cassettes that I copied from vinyl ca 20 years ago are in very much better shape than the original vinyl. Neither have been played too frequently, but "shelf rot" in the vinyl (properly stored) makes them much inferior to the cassette playback - for most of them.

This is just an observation, not an assertion that one or the other is always best.

John